Still time to plant your winter vegetable garden

Now’s the time to plant a tree, which is the most important tool in fighting global warming.

Now’s the time to plant a tree, which is the most important tool in fighting global warming. (Getty Images)

Nan Sterman

October brought some unprecedented dry heat to our region, and many plants suffered. If your winter vegetable garden withered, there’s plenty of time to start again. And if you delayed planting ornamentals in the heat (and I hope you did), you can make up time this month, assuming we have the expected cool temperatures and rejuvenating rains.

• Plant trees. Trees are the most important tools when it comes to fighting global warming. Trees cool the air, filter out particulates, generate oxygen, shade our homes in summer, create habitat for birds and other animals and do so much more. Before you select a tree, do your homework. Choose one that won’t outgrow the space where you’d like to plant it. Is there suitable irrigation to water it deeply but infrequently? Matching plants to place makes for a low-maintenance garden.

• Most established trees slow down this time of year, which makes it a really good time to give them a haircut. Hire only a certified arborist who is on site with the crew while all the work is being done. Never allow anyone to top a tree. If a tree is too tall, replace it with one that is naturally shorter.

• Prune summer and spring flowering shrubs before they form new flower buds. Once the buds have formed, pruning will remove all the future flowers. Definitely not the goal!

• Prune fig trees. Fig wood is surprisingly soft and easy to cut. Some people cut their figs down to the ground every few years. This strategy keeps fig trees small enough for all the fruits to be in reach. It isn’t necessary but it is an option.

• Protect bare and newly planted hillsides from erosion that can happen with heavy rainfall. Lay straw wattles horizontally across the hillside. Wattles are mesh tubes filled with straw and staked in place to slow water as it flows downhill. By next spring, the straw will decompose to the point that you can empty it out of the wattle and onto the soil. Compost “socks” are similar to wattles but are filled with compost.

• Jute mesh fabric also protects bare hillsides from erosion. Jute mesh looks like huge, open weave burlap. Since it is biodegradable, there’s no need to remove it at the end of the season. And, if you are landscaping the hillside, you can plant through the mesh. Next spring, mulch over the jute and you are done.

• Plant, plant, plant. November is often the optimal combination of cool moist air, warm soil, and, hopefully, rain for planting. So get your shovel out and start digging holes.

• How to prepare a planting hole. Dig a hole an inch or two deeper a little wider than the plant’s rootball; make it slightly square and rough up the sides of the hole. This helps encourage plant roots to grow out beyond the hole. Fill the hole with water and let the water drain out. Toss a handful (for a 1-gallon plant) or two or three (for a 5-gallon, more for larger plants) of worm castings into the hole.

• How to plant a shrub or perennial. Water the plant in its container and let it drain. Turn the container on its side and gently press on it to loosen the rootball. Carefully slide the rootball out of the container and gently loosen the roots so they no longer wrap around the rootball (skip this step with Bougainvillea or Matilija poppies). Place the plant into the hole and refill with the soil you dug out. Don’t amend the soil. Do wet the soil as you refill the hole and tamp the soil around the base of the plant. Soak the soil after you plant, then add drip irrigation and a thick layer of mulch, but leave bare dirt immediately around the base of the stem or trunk.

• Once it starts raining, turn your irrigation off. Over long dry periods, run the irrigation half as often (not half as long) as it did over the summer. Plants don’t need as much water when the air is cool and the sun is lower in the sky.

• Clean rain gutters before rains begin. If the stuff you pull out of the gutter looks like compost, add it to your compost pile or use it to mulch the garden bed.

• By month’s end, strip remaining leaves off pears, plums and other deciduous fruit trees. Once they are bare, you can do your first dormant oil spray, to be followed by one or two more sprays through the winter.

Getty Images

Plan now for planting bare-root fruit trees and berries when plants become available next month.

Plan now for planting bare-root fruit trees and berries when plants become available next month. (Getty Images)

• Plan now for when fruit trees, grapes, berries and other bare root fruits start to appear in the nursery at the end of next month. Some local nurseries offer preseason ordering, as do online suppliers.

• Bare root fruit trees are made of two parts — fruiting wood grafted onto a rootstock. The rootstock goes into the ground. The fruiting wood forms the trunk and the branches that make fruits. Pay attention to the characteristics of each so you get the fruits you love on a tree best adapted to your garden’s soil, drainage, etc.

• Tomatoes and summer crops are winding down. Rather than compost them, put them in the green waste. They tend to accumulate diseases and pathogens you shouldn’t recycle back into your garden. Commercial green waste processing destroys the bad guys, so there’s no problem bringing it back later as compost.

• Before you plant peas, set up a trellis or other support structure for them to climb.

• Plant wildflower seeds. There are many wildflower seed mixes on the market, but the best ones are those that are mixed specifically for Southern California. They include plants like California poppy, elegant Clarkia (Clarkia elegans), bluebells (Phaecelia campanulata) and bicolor lupine (Lupuinus bicolor).

• To plant wildflowers, choose a spot in full sun, rake soil smooth, then water to saturate the soil. In a 1-pint plastic container, combine one part seeds with four parts construction sand, then sprinkle handfuls of the mixture over the seedbed. Rake soil gently to barely bury seeds. Water again, with a very soft spray, wetting the ground only enough to settle soil around seeds. Continue to water every few days (unless it rains) to keep seeds and young seedlings damp.

• If you don’t plant winter vegetables, plant cover crops. Cover crops are “green manure” that grows through winter. Six weeks before spring planting, turn the cover crop plants into the soil so they can break down and add to the soil’s organic matter.

• Stop watering Plumeria around Thanksgiving after they’ve mostly gone dormant; wait until new leaves appear in March before watering again. Cover Plumeria or move them under the eaves when nighttime temperatures drop below 35 degrees.

• Prepare for frost. Move delicate container plants into the warmest area of your garden. Cover permanent plants with floating row cover, held in place with small clamps or clothespins. Purchase floating row cover from local farm and irrigation supply stores or order it online.